Crosley Annex/Urban Design

2010 University of Cincinnati Studio Project

The Crosley Annex project was designed as part of a joint neighborhood scale urban design intervention. With fellow University of Cincinnati architecture student Kelly Hogg, an urban site design was crafted that was based around the need for a light rail station. The station location gave way to a promenade that sat overtop an interstate highway. The park served as a connection between the two detached neighborhoods on either side.

Aside from the transit station and park, individual buildings were designed to address the newly created spaces. My design (shown below in image 1) calls for the renovation of a long abandoned factory (that has several times served as a subject for my photography: here, here, and here), as well as an addition that provides modern quality office space, the amenities of which are often difficult to fit into existing structures. The final building program provides a completely vertically integrated facility, including retail storefront, office space, design studios, production areas, and shipping/receiving facilities. The industrial nature of the building is fitting to the historic character of the neighborhood, while the benefices of vertical integration contribute to the community in general.

The building design itself addresses the newly created busy intersection, primarily, by extruding - then expanding the existing structural grid. The structure then breaks down and opens up to provide views and custom usable interior spaces. A perforated metal skin wraps around the building to shade the glazed curtain wall behind it, yet opens up and diverges where light is necessary and closes and constricts around plenum and other spaces that are necessary to conceal from the exterior.